[(99m)Tc]Tilmanocept Accurately Detects Sentinel Lymph Nodes and Predicts Node Pathology Status in Patients with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck: Results of a Phase III Multi-institutional Trial.

BACKGROUND: [(99m)Tc]Tilmanocept, a novel CD206 receptor-targeted radiopharmaceutical, was evaluated in an open-label, phase III trial to determine the false negative rate (FNR) of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) relative to the pathologic nodal status in patients with intraoral or cutaneous head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) undergoing tumor resection, SLNB, and planned elective neck dissection (END). Negative predictive value (NPV), overall accuracy of SLNB, and the impact of radiopharmaceutical injection timing relative to surgery were assessed. METHODS AND FINDINGS: This multicenter, non-randomized, single-arm trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT00911326) enrolled 101 patients with T1-T4, N0, and M0 HNSCC. Patients received 50 µg [(99m)Tc]tilmanocept radiolabeled with either 0.5 mCi (same day) or 2.0 mCi (next day), followed by lymphoscintigraphy, SLNB, and END. All excised tissues were evaluated for tissue type and tumor presence. [(99m)Tc]Tilmanocept identified one or more SLNs in 81 of 83 patients (97.6 %). Of 39 patients identified with any tumor-positive nodes (SLN or non-SLN), one patient had a single tumor-positive non-SLN in whom all SLNs were tumor-negative, yielding an FNR of 2.56 %; NPV was 97.8 % and overall accuracy was 98.8 %. No significant differences were observed between same-day and next-day procedures. CONCLUSIONS: Use of receptor-targeted [(99m)Tc]tilmanocept for lymphatic mapping allows for a high rate of SLN identification in patients with intraoral and cutaneous HNSCC. SLNB employing [(99m)Tc]tilmanocept accurately predicts the pathologic nodal status of intraoral HNSCC patients with low FNR, high NPV, and high overall accuracy. The use of [(99m)Tc]tilmanocept for SLNB in select patients may be appropriate and may obviate the need to perform more extensive procedures such as END.

The efficacy of Tilmanocept in sentinel lymph mode mapping and identification in breast cancer patients: a comparative review and meta-analysis of the 99mTc-labeled nanocolloid human serum albumin standard of care.

Sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping is common, however question remains as to what the ideal imaging agent is and how such an agent might provide reliable and stable localization of SLNs. (99m)Tc-labeled nanocolloid human serum albumin (Nanocoll) is the most commonly used radio-labeled colloid in Europe and remains the standard of care (SOC). It is used in conjunction with vital blue dyes (VBDs) which relies on simple lymphatic drainage for localization. Although the exact mechanism of Nanocoll SLN localization is unknown, there is general agreement that Nanocoll exhibits the optimal size distribution and radiolabeling properties of the commercially available radiolabel colloids. [(99m)Tc]Tilmanocept is a novel radiopharmaceutical designed to address these deficiencies. Our aim was to compare [(99m)Tc]Tilmanocept to Nanocoll for SLN mapping in breast cancer. Data from the Phase III clinical trials of [(99m)Tc]Tilmanocept's concordance with VBD was compared to a meta-analysis of a review of the literature to identify a (99m)Tc albumin colloid SOC. The primary endpoints were SLN localization rate and degree of localization. Six studies were used for a meta-analysis to identify the colloid-based SOC. Five studies (6,134 patients) were used to calculate the SOC localization rate of 95.91 % (CI 0.9428-0.9754) and three studies (1,380 patients) were used for the SOC SLN degree of localization of 1.6683 (CI 1.5136-1.8230). The lower bound of the confidence interval was used for comparison to Tilmanocept. Tilmanocept data included 148 patients, and pooled analysis revealed a 99.99 % (CI 0.9977-1.0000) localization rate and degree of localization of 2.16 (CI 1.964-2.3600). Tilmanocept was superior to the Nanocoll SOC for both endpoints (P < 0.0001).